Spygate, Belichick, thought

Throughout this whole Spygate thing, it seems that Belichick and the Patriots have worked hard to play the innocent “oh, we weren’t aware of that rule” angle. But one thing I was thinking about this morning is the fact that it’s not as though Belichick jumped into the head coaching position for New England from nowhere. He was a head coach before in Cleveland and he has years of NFL experience as an assistant coach. He apparently started this taping from day one in New England which I think naturally begs the question: was he taping in Cleveland too? For someone who has been around the NFL as long as he has, it just doesn’t hold up when they say “we weren’t aware of that”. It just doesn’t hold up. Mike Martz, according to ESPN radio this morning, is hot about this whole thing and apparently a Rams player is suing the Patriots for taping the walk through because if the Rams would have won that Super Bowl, the player would have earned a higher bonus. Some think he actually has a good case.

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4 Responses to “Spygate, Belichick, thought”

Personally I think Belichick is going to beat the rap, he’s taking the right overall stragey on this thing waiting it out, and he’s a good enough coach for Kraft to internally justify keeping him around.

I love the explantation, it’s the Costanza defense when he got caught having sex with the cleaning lady at his new job: “Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I gotta plead ignorance on this one. if anyone had said anything . . .”

RayMidge – I need to apologize for not including you in my post this morning as you said a few weeks ago now that Spygate may become extra-concerning for the NFL if this taping behavior was going on during previous Belichick years as well. I would agree that it’s doubtful Belichick will eventually be fired (I said that I’d fire him mostly because I can’t stand him). BUT if this thing continues to blow up, there may end up being lots of pressure put on Kraft and company to just put this behind them, perhaps let McDaniels take over.

As a die-hard Packer fan, I find it hard to believe that the Packers would not have done as the Patriots did in preparing for games with any opponent: leave no scouting stone unturned. Whatever you can observe during the course of any game, be they all of the game’s plays, the team’s tendencies, red zone offenze, blitz packages, audibles, any individual player’s tendencies, stances, strengths/weaknesses, etc., etc., etc., etc. is fair game for the scouts to observe and record. After all, we’re not talking about Watergate here and breaking and entering into the other team’s private offices. So I have no problem with taping signals (and the Patriots only got burned because they violated the 2007 memo that said, “tape from an enclosed booth only” rather than taping in general) and have no doubt that any competent, meticulous coach will study other teams’ signals as well.

Taping walkthroughs, since it’s a private affair rather than being out in public, is something different. But I’m not sure there’s anything there aside from a goofy Walsh taping something without being told to do so. But we’ll have to see on that.

Just don’t like “scouting” to now be called “cheating”. I especially don’t like a moron like Arlen Spector to express horror that teams actually meticulously scout other teams…and want to make a federal case out of it. Obviously, he never played the game.